he third remained to be accomplished,
and the cornice had to be constructed. Paul was not satisfied with
Sangallo's design, and referred it to Michelangelo for criticism
--possibly in 1544. The result was a report, which we still
possess, in which Buonarroti, basing his opinion on principles derived
from Vitruvius, severely blames Sangallo's plan under six separate
heads. He does not leave a single merit, as regards either harmony of
proportion, or purity of style, or elegance of composition, or
practical convenience, or decorative beauty, or distribution of parts.
He calls the cornice barbarous, confused, bastard in style, discordant
with the rest of the building, and so ill suited to the palace as, if
carried out, to threaten the walls with destruction. This document has
considerable interest, partly as illustrating Michelangelo's views on
architecture in general, and displaying a pedantry of which he was
never elsewhere guilty, partly as explaining the bitter hostility
aroused against him in Sangallo and the whole tribe of that great
architect's adherents. We do not, unfortunately, possess the design
upon which the report was made. But, even granting that it must have
been defective, Michelangelo, who professed that architecture was not
his art, might, one thinks, have spared his rival such extremity of
adverse criticism. It exposed him to the taunts of rivals and
ill-wishers; justified them in calling him presumptuous, and gave them
a plausible excuse when they accused him of jealousy. What made it
worse was, that his own large building, the Laurentian Library,
glaringly exhibits all the defects he discovered in Sangallo's
cornice.

I find it difficult to resist the impression that Michelangelo was
responsible, to a large extent, for the ill-will of those artists whom
Vasari calls "la setta Sangallesca." His life became embittered by
their animosity, and his industry as Papal architect continued to be
hampered for many years by their intrigues. But he alone was to blame
at the beginning, not so much for expressing an honest opinion, as for
doing so with insulting severity.

That Michelangelo may have been right in his condemnation of
Sangallo's cornice is of course possible. Paul himself was
dissatisfied, and eventually threw that portion of the building open
to competition. Perino del Vaga, Sebastiano del Piombo, and the young
Giorgio Vasari are said to have furnished designs. Michelangelo did so
also; and his p